The Dodo Blog

Espèces emblématiques disparues par la faute de l’homme (Emblematic species extinct because of men): French article about Le Dodo (The Dodo).

Dodo: This was made by prisoners, and appeared in a display of “scarecrow art”. Picture by Robert Grant.

This came from a monoprint exercise- I reverse printed a typed prose, and traced in ink from beneath the plate. Same deal with the drawing.
Apparenty, my into to printmaking teacher hadn’t realized the Dodo was extinct. -And was also confounded by my process.

Requiem for a Dodo by Kytholemue Pendleton

Artefact of the month – July from the Zoological Society of London:

Savery’s Dodo in a Landscape with birds and animals by Roelandt Savery, circa 1629

It is thought Savery actually saw the dodo alive, the bird having been brought from its native habitat Mauritius to Prince Maurice of Nassau’s menagerie before it became extinct in the 1690s.

This is one of the few authentic pictures of the bird in life and very unusually Savery has painted a rear view of the bird in this painting.

Several of Savery’s other paintings also include the dodo in more conventional positions from which most later paintings of the dodo are derived. Only a few paintings of the dodo from life are known to exist. A key to the identification of the 21 other birds in the painting, prepared by Peter Olney, is available in the ZSL Library.

The ZSL painting is thought to date from c1629 and exemplifies the range of exotic birds in captivity in Europe in the early-17th century, as at least 18 different species have been identified.

The dodos drink too! Ok, they don’t (didn’t), but they are they are in the logo of a beer from Réunion Bière Bourbon, also known as “La Dodo”. It’s a “blonde beer” (sorry if I’m wrong but I don’t know about beers, specially in English) produced and commercialized in Réunion by Bourbon breweries, where it’s the first product, the most known and the most bribed. Bière Bourbon has this nick/ surname, La Dodo, in reference to the bird from Mauritius island which is extinct and appears in the logo, as a smiling dodo. (From the Wikipedia article, and sorry about any problems on this translation)

From the English article:

The Brasseries de Bourbon (“Breweries of Bourbon”) is the only major producer of beer on Réunion Island, a French oversea department in the Indian Ocean formerly known as Bourbon Island.

The group was founded in 1962. The first product of the brasseries, and by far now their most sold and widely known, is the blonde lager Dodo, named after the now extinct bird (its official name is simply “Bourbon”). This beer is widely known because of its emblem of a smiling dodo, and the creole slogan La dodo lé la (The Dodo is here!), both displayed in colourful wall paintings on shops, snacks etc. selling the beer.

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Alice in Wonderland by Peter Ferguson. (via Hugo Strikes Back)

Occasionally the neanderthal would go off and paint. That’s a carved wood dodo bird in the foreground.

Dodo bird as religious icon.

The Dodo bird as religious icon are from the set Jesus Reads to A Neanderthal by Daren Rabinovich (I think) at the Low Gallery, photographed by Christina.

From the The Mauritius Post Ltd: An Official First Day Cover is an envelope which the post office puts on sale on the first day of an issue. The stamp or stamps are cancelled with a special cachet. And the latest First Day Cover (FDC) is The Dodo above.

This set of postage stamps/ souvenir sheet issued by the Mauritius Post Ltd portrays different representations of the Dodo through drawings and paintings of various artists at different times.

Rs5 Journal of the Gelderland, 1601
An important contribution to the early eye-witness accounts of the Dodo are the drawings found in the Journal of Admiral Wolfert Harmenszoon, who commanded the second Dutch fleet of five ships to visit Mauritius in 1601. The flagship of this expedition was the Gelderland which was one of the original ships to call into Mauritius with Vice-Admiral Warwyck in 1598. The Gelderland Journal is particularly valuable as it includes four drawings of living Dodos, and one drawing of a dead one.

Rs10 Adrian Van de Venne, 1626
This pen drawing by Adrian Van de Venne of a rather fat looking Dodo was drawn around 1626, and it can be found in the Library at the University of Utrecht, Holland. It is probable that this image was modelled from a crudely stuffed bird, or even copied from some other artist, which led to exaggerations of one painter to another.

Rs15 Harrison, 1798
This painting appeared in a publication by Harrison, Cluse and Co., of No. 78, Fleet Street, London, in 1798. It seems to have been copied from one of the best known Savery pictures which was presented to the Natural History Museum, London in 1759.

Rs25 J.W. Frohawk, 1905
This chromolithograph by J.W. Frohawk is taken from Lord Walter Rothschild’s Extinct Birds which was published in 1907. The same artist painted a number of pictures for the same publication. Lord Walter Rothschild came from a family of rich bankers but his consuming interest was in ornithology and extinct birds in particular.

Rs25 Souvenir Sheet by Julian Pender Hume
Julian Pender Hume is a Palaeontologist by profession which enables him to bring accuracy to his artistic impressions of extinct animals. His painting showing a reconstruction of endemic fauna of Mauritius has been reproduced on the Souvenir Sheet.

First Day Cover Illustration
The illustration on the First Day Cover is a reproduction of the Dodo’s head from a bronze statue situated at Ile aux Aigrettes.

Ok, now I’m desperate. Does any one have an idea of how can I get those stamps and the FDC envelope? Do I have any readers in Mauritius? Any suggestions? *Sigh*

Update: I think I’ve discovered a way to buy them on the on-line shop of the Philatelic Products. I just need to discover how much will cost me the international transfer from bank in Brazil to Mauritius. *Ouch*

As A Dodo: The obituaries you’d like to see is a satirical British blog of faux obituaries, written by George Poles and Simon Littlefield. Recently, some of the blog writings became a book: As a Dodo: The Obituaries You’d Really Like to See.

Death comes to us all, but never in so pleasing a way as now. As a Dodo is a satirical compilation of faux obituaries to make you wipe tears of laughter from your eyes as you bid farewell to all things lost. From Britney’s hair and the comedy double act of Bush and Blair to Prince Harry’s bad-boy reputation, nothing is safe from the scathing wit of the award-winning blogsters. Speaking ill of the dead has never been so much fun!

Book illustration with a Raphus sp. and Raphus cucullatus.